--- title: Donatella Versace On Why She Misses Her Late Brother Gianni description: Donatella Versace opens up about what she misses most about her late brother, the legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace. canonical: https://time.com/5127803/donatella-versace-late-brother-gianni-versace/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-31T22:35:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:15.864Z og:title: Donatella Versace Shares What She Misses About Gianni og:description: Fashion's favorite blonde gets personal og:url: https://time.com/5127803/donatella-versace-late-brother-gianni-versace/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6957d57fbee66ccd/6988fa27656a3f79eebd35be/donatella-versace1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Fashion Awards 2017 In Partnership With Swarovski - Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donatella Versace Shares What She Misses About Gianni twitter:description: Fashion's favorite blonde gets personal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6957d57fbee66ccd/6988fa27656a3f79eebd35be/donatella-versace1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Donatella Versace Misses Most About Her Late Brother Gianni  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 31, 2018 10:35 PM UTC  LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 04: Designer Donatella Versace is seen at The Fashion Awards 2017 in partnership with Swarovski at Royal Albert Hall on December 4, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/BFC/Getty Images for BFC) LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 04: Designer Donatella Versace is seen at The Fashion Awards 2017 in partnership with Swarovski at Royal Albert Hall on December 4, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/BFC/Getty Images for BFC)Tristan Fewings/BFC—Getty Images for BFC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 31, 2018 10:35 PM UTC [Donatella Versace](http://time.com/5097786/gianni-versace-where-are-they-now/), the fashion designer behind the iconic fashion line Versace, has become as much a fixture of pop culture as the opulent, over-the top clothes she designs. From [playing herself in _Zoolander_](http://style.time.com/2013/04/12/8-great-fashionista-film-cameos/slide/donatella-versace-zoolander/)to being immortalized in a song named after her ([Lady Gaga’s “Donatella”](https://genius.com/Lady-gaga-donatella-lyrics)), Versace can come off as a larger-than-life fixture. However, the designer recently opened up about her personal life, when _Vogue_ interviewed her as a part of their “73 Question” series. In the video, Versace gives a tour of her family’s famed Milan apartment and talks about feminism, why she’ll always choose heels over flats, and perhaps most powerfully, her late brother Gianni Versace, whose assassination nearly two decades ago is again a topic of conversation, thanks to [this season of _American Crime Story_](http://time.com/5093342/versace-american-crime-story-statement/). Versace shares that she thinks that her brother, the founder of the House of Versace, would not think that her creative direction of the brand was “good enough;” she also shares that what she misses most about him is his laugh and that the best advice he ever gave to her is to “be true to yourself.” She adds that the tribute collection she showed last year was in honor of him, but she could only produce it twenty years after his death because before that it was “too painful.” Watch Donatella Versace’s full interview below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5127803/donatella-versace-late-brother-gianni-versace/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5127803/donatella-versace-late-brother-gianni-versace/"},"headline":"Here's What Donatella Versace Misses Most About Her Late Brother Gianni","datePublished":"2018-01-31T22:35:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:15.864Z","description":"Fashion's favorite blonde gets real","url":"https://time.com/5127803/donatella-versace-late-brother-gianni-versace/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6957d57fbee66ccd/6988fa27656a3f79eebd35be/donatella-versace1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6957d57fbee66ccd/6988fa27656a3f79eebd35be/donatella-versace1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Fashion Awards 2017 In Partnership With Swarovski - Show","caption":"The Fashion Awards 2017 In Partnership With Swarovski - Show","creditText":"Tristan Fewings/BFC—Getty Images for BFC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5127803/donatella-versace-late-brother-gianni-versace/","name":"Here's What Donatella Versace Misses Most About Her Late Brother Gianni"}}]}] ```